DUBAI: Airline Cathay Pacific is looking to add more destinations on China’s Belt and Road project, CEO Ronald Lam said on Sunday, after a new route to Riyadh starts up later this year.

Lam also said Hong Kong’s flagship airline, which made heavy losses and layoffs during the pandemic, is on track to reach 100% of its pre-pandemic passenger flights by the first quarter of 2025, having reached 80% of capacity within the second quarter of this year.

Cathay had aimed to reach 100% capacity by the end of 2024, but in March moved the target back three months.

Cathay Pacific ‘is back’ with first annual profit since 2019

The airline reported its first annual profit in four years in March, however executives said they expect yields to normalise this year as the post-pandemic global imbalance between supply of flights and travel demand that drove up ticket prices and airline yields diminishes as airlines add capacity.

“Indeed we’re seeing that this year … the yield has been normalizing gradually coming down from last year. In particular, the supply and demand balancing is going quicker on the regional, the short haul routes,” Lam told reporters during an airline conference in Dubai.

The carrier restored capacity more slowly after the pandemic than its closest rival, Singapore Airlines, because it faced tighter quarantine rules for longer, and needed to hire more staff to bring back services.

Cathay this year said it intends to fly to more destinations on China’s Belt and Road, Beijing’s strategy to build an infrastructure network connecting China to the world.

In March it announced it would start flying to Riyadh as part of this push in the final quarter of this year, amid warming ties between Saudi Arabia and Beijing.

“We are looking at adding more,” Lam said, adding that around a quarter of Cathay’s current 80 routes are Belt and Road destinations.

Listed in Hong Kong, Cathay’s largest shareholder at around 45% is UK-headquartered Swire Group. Its second-largest is Chinese state-owned Air China.